As he walked along Pacific Coast Highway near Carpinteria, Greg Wood had fallen behind the group of 300 people he was supposed to be leading on the fourth annual St. Junípero Serra Walking Pilgrimage.
With the group 100 yards ahead, Wood found himself almost alone, except for the item in his hands: a reliquary holding a first-class relic of the pilgrimage’s namesake.
“Here we are,” Wood remembers thinking to himself. “We’re walking in your footsteps, we’re doing what you came to do, and we’re continuing your mission.”